PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

[Gstring]

An acquaintance of mine has been dithering for several months regarding the choice of pups to upgrade his 2018 PRS SE Custom. I actually think the stock pick ups are pretty good especially the neck but he is looking for that extra bit and it's his money . There are many good choices for an upgrade. Perhaps too many. I have suggested a set of uncovered A2 s ....the original not the Slash model or an A2 neck with a Pearly Gates bridge or (budget option) an Irongear Tesla Shark bridge with either the stock neck or a Blues Engine.

Seems he recently tried the new PRS SE Paul model which I understand is basicly the same guitar with improved pups and individual coil cuts . He was apparently very impressed with the sound and wants to get a set of these pups if he can . However ,as far as I aware it is not possible to buy these pups from PRS after market.

He also very much liked the sound of the pups in coil cut mode.

My local stores do not stock PRS and I am not familiar with this guitar but the price tag does seem a bit high for an Indonesian made solid body. Usually Indonesia is cheaper that South Korea. Presumably the high cost is due to better quality pups and electrics. I have done a bit of research on You Tube for this guitar and in a vid Paul Smith states that grounding wires alone does not work to get a good single cut sound and that extra circuitry is required and that the actual construction of the pup is important so that it works with the circuit to get a true single coil sound from a Humbucker.

Has anybody any ideas of what PRS have come up with or is this mainly marketing to sell the Paul Smith signature model. Has anybody looked under the hood of one of these guitars yet?There seems to be a consensus that the single coil sound on this guitar is very good. It's difficult to imagine SD that can't better a Far Eastern made pup.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

The stock pups in that guitar are not great and it would be a good idea to replace them. While it IS true that some buckers split better than others, there is no special circuitry that I am aware of that will make ANY split bucker sound like a true single coil (except the StagMag).

If it were me, I'd either spend a lot of money upgrading the pups and doing some fret work and set up on that guitar or I'd sell it and get something worth the price. I've never played an SE that I thought was worth the price nor that was set up to be very playable. Even though I love "real" PRS guitars, I've never played an SE that I even liked (even though there are some gorgeous looking SE's out there). I think many people are tricked by their eyes to think that SE's are good instruments.

 

[AniML]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

I have a Korina SE singlecut and stock pups were junk. I replaced them with Seth's and now there is nothing lacking in this guitar

 

[Gstring]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

i have to say I personally ,am fairly impressed wth the playability and fret finish on this SE and the pups are not that bad. My one complaint that at around £800 it is a bit over priced for Far East solid body. As regards the SE Paul model, I understand the pick ups are different and are an upgrade on the other SEs . This is strongly inferred in several vids and of course this owner thinks they are better than the ones in his SE. On doing research this SE Paul model has had a bit of hype especially as regards havng a coil cut system that gives a proper single coil sound not normally found in a Humbucker guitar. In the vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C85r12zK_pU

at around 4.50 Paul Smith refers the a lot going on with the coil cut circuitry and that just grounding out the wires alone not working. This prompted my original post.

I am aware that Paul is actually demoing the core Paul model but in other vids he refers to the SE Paul model having pups and electrics based on the core model and sounding similar.

Hopefully somebody will look under he hood of one of these guitars sometime in the future and report on any interesting finds.

 

[Gransen]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

My local stores do not stock PRS and I am not familiar with this guitar but the price tag does seem a bit high for an Indonesian made solid body. Usually Indonesia is cheaper that South Korea. Presumably the high cost is due to better quality pups and electrics.

I'm not an expert, but from my perspective, it looks like the Indonesian guitars are generally coming up in quality, just like the Korean ones did (remember when "Korea" meant "entry-level garbage...???"). Not just in guitars, and not just these countries, but all over Asia things are coming up...except for China. The Hyundai story is being told over-and-over again...and those things were crap 20 years ago. Then they bought into Kia, and THOSE things were crap. Korean made cars, yes. But this story is being told everywhere in Asia other than China.

I'm no longer afraid of an Indonesian guitar, as long as it feels good in my hands. CHINA...??? Stay away.

 

[Cynical]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

I keep seeing references to Indonesia in this thread; is that a new thing? Every PRS SE I've ever played has been WMI Korea.

 

[Mincer]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

Eastman makes some pretty incredible instruments in China...

 

[Gransen]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

Eastman makes some pretty incredible instruments in China...

My apologies for the over-generalization. I was wondering if I was going to get dinged for a brand I'm not up-to-speed on, and just let it ride anyhow.

 

[BluesIsBlood12]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

The pickups in those are going to be one of the G&B models that they put in basically everything outside of the Core line. They're ok for asian pickups, but nothing special. Any number of after market pickups would sound a lot better.

For the coil splits though, PRS does what's called a partial split, where they add a resister that lets some of the 2nd coil bleed through, rather than going to ground. This results in an output that's around the same as real single coils, and it sounds much better. It also reduces the hum. You'll still never make a humbucker really sound like a Strat, but partial splits are much more useful, and I'm surprised that this is not the standard way everyone does it.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: PUPS AND WIRING IN PRS SE PAUL GUITAR

If you like that kind of split, a better way to do it is with a "spin-a-split" which lets you dial in any amount of the "split" coil according to your personal desires.